When American Legion Chaplain Bill Cook peered through the chain-link fence at the windswept landscape - a broken runway, scrubby fields and green foothills in the distance - he remembered the Phantoms. The fighter jets were once a regular sight, slicing through the air over what was for decades a bustling military base. "The jets would just roar," he said on a recent afternoon at the old U.S. Marine Corps Air Station El Toro. Now the Vietnam veteran is leading the charge to transform a small piece of that land into a final resting place for Orange County's veterans.

At nine prisons across California, more than 500 inmates continuing a hunger strike they began July 8 to protest what they call cruel and inhumane conditions, and this action - the third hunger strike in two years - must surely lead many Californians to wonder: Why should we care? What concern is it to peaceful and law-abiding citizens that people convicted of serious crimes experience deprivation? Is their fate not deserved? We should care. Our treatment of prisoners, even the most dangerous and irredeemable, is a fundamental expression of American values.

SACRAMENTO - A raft of bills to set tougher ethics rules for California politicians cleared their first legislative hurdle Tuesday as the state Senate prepared for a daylong refresher course on standards of conduct. Lawmakers say better adherence to existing rules and tougher restrictions in the future are needed to win back the public's trust after three state senators were charged with crimes. Eleven proposals approved by a Senate committee included a ban on fundraising during the end of legislative sessions, when decisions on many key issues are made; a reduction in the value of gifts that officials may accept; and a prohibition on such items as spa treatments, golf games, concert and professional sports tickets, theme park admissions and gift cards.

December 26, 2011 | By Roy M. Wallack, Special to the Los Angeles Times

Bike buyers have become accustomed to getting more for their money every year, but that has changed for 2012 thanks to rising commodity prices. Still, there are great values to be had if you know where to look. The road bikes below, which are targeted at riding enthusiasts, provide a representative spectrum of attractively priced aluminum and carbon models with vibration-damping carbon-fiber forks. If you plan to log a lot of miles but don't want to break the bank, these are good places to start.

Feeling guilty because you're not reading your frequent-flier membership emails and hotel loyalty program correspondence? Here's a site that stores your info and alerts you to deals and bonuses. Name: UsingMiles.com What it does: Stores your travel loyalty reward programs and lets you search and book travel using your debit/credit card, award flights or reward points. If you choose to book an award flight, it takes you straight to the airline website, for example, signs you in automatically and presents you with your options.

President Obama outlined a moral case for some of his economic policies on Thursday, saying that his religious values drive his decision to push for tougher regulation, economic equality and changes to the healthcare system. "We can't leave our values at the door," Obama told a group of lawmakers and other Washington figures at the annual National Prayer Breakfast in Washington. "If we leave our values at the door, we abandon much of the moral glue that has held our nation together for centuries and allowed us to become somewhat more perfect a union.

Re school vouchers: It is impossible for a democratic government to properly run schools. As a parent, I insist that teachers base their instruction around values that I find important. As a citizen, I insist that my government take no position on questions of values. Governmental value-neutrality is the essence of freedom of speech and of religion. The government must not tell its citizens what to think, but that is a teacher's primary function. The results of the conflict are manifest: unresolvable debates over evolution, prayer, sex education, discipline, testing, educational standards, integration of sexes, etc. Public schools cannot operate in ways that promote the values of all of the parents.

Feedback is everywhere. Not just in the form of professional performance reviews and unwanted comments from your parents, children and partners. Social media and review sites have unleashed the critic in us all. Eating a meal out? Post what you think of the food and waiters on a review site while still at the table. If you are reading this review online, you can leave a comment below saying just how wrong I am. We may not be able to exert complete control over what someone else thinks of us, but we can certainly do something about what we choose to do with the feedback.

I wash 1-quart plastic bags to reuse them. And every time, I wonder if I'm doing the right thing. Am I saving plastic? Wasting water? Just being cheap? Such questions can take up a lot of brain space these days and create anxiety in surplus as we contemplate our consumption of the Earth's resources. There's potential for dozens of quandaries every day: If I drive nine miles to my favorite farmers market, is that OK? Or must I go to the closer one I don't like as well? Paper or plastic bags?

Diesel-powered cars save on fuel, but many of them won't save you any money. That's because they cost thousands more to buy in the first place, compared with similar gas-powered models. And many automakers usually offer diesel engines only in combination with a pricey set of standard features. So it can take years - if ever - to make up for those upfront costs through savings at the pump. That's what makes the latest addition to Volkswagen's growing diesel fleet, the Jetta TDI Value Edition, so intriguing.

Each Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy is supposed to carry a card at all times that sets forth the department's core values, embodied in a single sentence pledging respect, integrity, wisdom and "the courage to stand against racism, sexism, anti-Semitism, homophobia and bigotry in all its forms. " The card has been variously called inspirational and plain silly, but if it's silly, its silliness lies not in the values expressed but in the notion that words on a card could, by themselves, imbue deputies with values that they do not already hold or that are not instilled in them in training and reinforced each day on the job. News reports and anecdotal tales of inmate abuse, the hazing of new deputies and disrespect paid to the communities it is supposed to protect suggest that the department has a long way to go to make its core values more than words on a card.

There's a continuing fascination with all-star seven-on-seven passing tournaments in March and April even though college football recruiters are barred from attending. Parents seem to think their sons will get a scholarship based on a seven-on-seven passing performance in the spring. It's not going to happen. Right now, college coaches are reviewing film of high school players from the season where they actually tackled people. In May, recruiters will be allowed to go to high schools and judge players up close and personal.

Cars cost a lot of money. With an average sales price of about $32,000, we know a new car is out of reach for many. The automakers know this too, which is why they continue to roll out bottom-rung cars for buyers on way-below-average budgets. The three least expensive cars on the market are the Nissan Versa at $12,800, the Chevrolet Spark at $12,995 and the Mitsubishi Mirage at $13,790. Prices are for the most basic cars with no options but do include destination charges. PHOTOS: The three cheapest cars on the market In that lowly range, their chief competition is a reliable used car - say, a 3-year-old Honda Civic or Mazda3, with low miles.

The value of stock buybacks by U.S. companies jumped in the fourth quarter of last year, led by repurchases by Apple Inc. and other technology giants. Companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 repurchased $126 billion of stock in the fourth quarter and $477.6 billion in all of 2013, according to FactSet Research Systems. The fourth-quarter level was about the same as the third-quarter amount but was up 28.5% from the last three months of 2012. In part because of pressure from activist investor Carl Icahn, Apple bought back nearly $27 billion of stock in 2013.

One of the longtime civilian monitors for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department defended his work Wednesday and said he should have his contract with the county renewed. Merrick Bobb's statements come a day after the new inspector general for the Sheriff's Department recommended the Board of Supervisors cut Bobb's contract, concluding that he and the agency's other monitor had limited success in helping the troubled department. In his letter to the board, Inspector General Max Huntsman said that over the years, Bobb had provided an "invaluable" outside perspective but in recent years his "influence has waned" and he had "little direct relationship with the department.